Podcast Pitch & Plan

Don’t Look Up: Navigating Communications and Information in a Time of Scientific Doubt

Content Strategy

We crafted a proposal for the VoxVerse Book and Film Club podcast, aimed at exploring works with deep societal implications. Our plan covered the following aspects:

  • Topic Selection: We proposed an episode that dives into the movie "Don't Look Up," using it as a basis to discuss broader environmental and social issues. Our goal was to encourage insightful discussions and improve understanding of societal issues through entertainment.

  • Framing Strategies: We made use of emotional appeals, logical arguments (Logos), and other rhetorical techniques to encourage reflection and critical analysis among listeners. These include rhetorical questions and the exploration of cognitive biases to deepen the listener’s engagement.

  • Audience Analysis: We identified the primary demographic as young adults, and created personas to represent the target audience.

  • Engagement Strategy: We will include mystery questions, character focuses, and interactive elements, ensuring the podcast is both educational and engaging. We will also prioritize humor and empathy to make the podcast more relatable and enjoyable.

  • Content Development: We outlined a structure for the episodes, beginning with a hook and going into character and plot analysis, expert interviews, and audience interaction segments, making sure to end with an actionable insights for listeners.

  • Call-to-Action: We will encourage listeners to take steps towards addressing the societal issues discussed in the podcast.

  • Evaluation and Measurement: We established KPIs to track the podcast’s performance, such as unique listeners, subscriber retention, social media engagement, & completion rates.

Market Research

Our research for the podcast episode will be based around investigating where people get their information about science and climate change, and how they ensure it is accurate.

For qualitative research, we plan to conduct an in-depth interview with an expert in scientific communications from Northwestern University. We will also engage in digital ethnography, analyzing discussions in climate change denier forums on Reddit to gather different perspectives.

For quantitative research, we will distribute a survey to collect data on how individuals obtain and process information on science topics. This survey will be distributed through our networks at Northwestern to ensure convenience sampling and a diverse representation across demographics.

The data will be analyzed using Qualtrics and we will also employ coding methods for qualitative data to identify common themes. This approach will give better direction to the content of our podcast and give us a more hollistic understanding of public perceptions regarding science communication.

Episode Pitch

Podcast Ideas

We generated three podcast episode ideas that align with the mission and values of VoxVerse Media (a media company that wants to amplify voices, spark conversations, and inspire change through storytelling). Each idea needed to appeal to the target audience. The ideas we came up with included "Beyond," which focuses on changemakers; "Campus Clash," which sets the stage for debates among students on environmental and societal topics; and "The VoxVerse Book Club," which explores social commentary through works of literature. We ultimately ended up deciding on the Book Club idea, which has been described in detail in the rest of this page.

Podcast Execution Plan

The Execution Plan for the episode titled "Rising Above the Chaos: Exploring Mental Health, Resilience, and Social Change" is a project involving multiple teams. We covered audience analysis, topic research, content planning, production, marketing, and evaluation. We also focused on planning how we would identify the target audience, research relevant topics, and script & record the episode. We also reearched effective marketing and audience engagement strategies to promote the episode. We wanted to deliver a podcast that resonates deeply with listeners interested in mental health, resilience, and social change.

"RISING ABOVE THE CHAOS"

"RISING ABOVE THE CHAOS"

In this podcast episode, we investigate how exposure to divisive rhetoric, misinformation, and contentious debates can contribute to stress, anxiety, and feelings of uncertainty among voters during political election seasons.